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PUNK The Whole Story

Here we go the 30th anniversary cash in starts here. Mojo
"Punk" The Whole Story by it's very title alone flatters itself to
decieve. As is nearly always the case, this book in my opinion
suffers due to the fact that vast amounts of the real punk story
is not even hinted at. All because of this prevaling superior
attitude that London and New York were the be all and end all
of the punk universe, which is bollocks! Every city has a tale to
tell some more than others (check out "It Makes You Want To
Spit" for evidence of this). This is another heavyweight tome of
cut and paste lazy journalism. All the ground work was done
years ago and its just the same old band pics and stories
rehashed and repackaged yet again to fleece the ageing punk
punters of their hard earned cash one more time for good old
days nostalgia's sake. There have been numerous publications
like this on the shelves over the years, that have covered this
well trodden (and frankly getting boring now) path a million
times before. This particular book is just like a glossier
expanded hard back version of a Mojo Punk special, and if you
bought the Punk mag specials then you don't really need to
buy this book, even with its laughable safety pin and badge
adorned old persons tartan rug on the cover. Are the
publishers taking the piss here? The story this time goes from
the Stooges to the Pistols to Green Day to get the nu punk!
teenies interested. There are loads of glossy eye catching pics
within its cover, a majority of which any punk worth their stripes
will own or have seen before. And some of the printed
facts are
suspect like for example "Soo Catwoman" was amongst the Pistols fans on screen during the infamous
Grundy interview!
Now I remember all the other 'S' names...Siouxsie, Simone, Severin and Simon Barker. But I don't recall the wonderful
Soo on my crackling with static mid 70's tube? This is a book for the completist who will buy anything punk related
regardless the casual buyer or novice. But its definitely not a vital read for the hardcore fan, so spend your money
wisely. So have a browse through it in your local store and decide for yourself if its for you  because god knows how
many other 76/77 punk 30th birthday books , dvds etc we will be bombarded with over the next fifteen months? Maybe
someone somewhere has been taking the time to document the real whole story and its not just another hollow claim on
some graphic designers childishly cliched punky book cover dust jacket.
Joe Donnelly - Belfast 23/9/06.

AMAZON
Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Dorling Kindersley H/B (September 7th 2006)
ISBN: 1405316780
Punk The Whole Story (Courtesy of Joe Donnell)
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